


The Ripple Effect: An Udai Tenma study

by Little Giant (Destini)



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Character Study, Connections Theme, Essays, Gen, Spoilers, character essay, furudate, non-fiction
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-10
Updated: 2020-10-10
Packaged: 2021-03-07 22:21:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,269
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26925022
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Destini/pseuds/Little%20Giant
Summary: A character essay breaking down the connection themes ofHaikyū!!featuring Udai Tenma and his significance to Furudate-sensei's story. Covers up to the final chapter (402).Everything connects. People connect. It’s a core, if not the core message ofHaikyū!!The connections aren’t always a stone or a splash, sometimes they’re a mere brush of fingers......Udai Tenma is one of these many connections, or ripples. Before the events ofHaikyū!!volume 1, Tenma has curled his toes in the ocean, blissfully unaware of his future impact on several lives.
Relationships: Hinata Shouyou & Udai Tenma
Kudos: 16





	The Ripple Effect: An Udai Tenma study

**Author's Note:**

> A re-upload from a previously deleted Tumblr post.

Everything connects. People connect. It’s a core, if not _the_ core message of _Haikyū!!_ The connections aren’t always a stone or a splash, sometimes they’re a mere brush of fingers. But the ripples, regardless, carry across the sea, touching things the initial point will never fathom, let alone know about.

In _Haikyū!!_ , those ripples all carry a weight that’s not so easily compared. The fact that people have connected at all is most important—through friendships, rivalries, mentors, classmates, and even random acts of kindness.

Udai Tenma is one of these many connections, or ripples. Before the events of _Haikyū!!_ volume 1, Tenma has curled his toes in the ocean, blissfully unaware of his future impact on several lives. In fact, it’s not until years after he turned from volleyball that those ripples take shape in his life and he connects again in new ways—entirely by accident.

For a while he stands to the readers with his back turned, a nameless and faceless idol that leapt into the spotlight through sheer force of will, which inspires several others of his short stature.

[ ](https://ibb.co/N9cJT3H)

It could’ve been enough to leave him like that. But Furudate, a fan of connections, life lessons, and how people help or inspire each other, has us materialize him and then subvert expectation.

When we meet him, the readers are given an obvious correlation to Furudate’s manga journey. Many fans connect Tenma as a “Furudate-sensei stand-in.” Tenma also starts with horror comics, also loves volleyball, and the next manga he writes when the series ends is about volleyball. It’s a full-circle of their not-so-subtle similarities. But merely seeing Tenma as a stand-in is a disservice to the character and his purpose.

Tenma appears suddenly, unexpectedly, long before we learn what happens to our beloved characters and their volleyball careers. It’s long before we learn that Hinata Shōyō learns to fly across Brazilian sand, long before we learn Hoshiumi Kōrai joins a prestigious pro volleyball team, long before we learn Nakashima Takeru becomes a libero, and long before we learn Coach Washijō Tanji is the one who bursts gates wide open when he previously acted as a gatekeeper.

When Tenma appears, we don’t know what path is ‘correct’ for Shōyōu Hinata. Through his point of view, we are chasing a shadow of what it means to _be_ a Little Giant. It’s a shadow that has formed a path of inspiration for him, but it’s uncertain and wavering—imperfect, also a source of frustration. Hinata and the rest of the crows beat Nakashima, who is at one point said to have a play style most similar to the original Little Giant. And yet, Hinata and the rest of the crows fall to Hoshiumi, a powerful player hailed as the new Little Giant through his well-rounded abilities and strength as an ace of a powerhouse school.

Hinata is nothing like either of them.

[ ](https://ibb.co/4WVvH09)

Tenma’s legacy, which brought Hinata into volleyball, then unexpectedly shackles him. Tenma doesn’t know this; he has never concerned himself with legacy or known it even existed. Volleyball is no longer his number one love, and he gracefully let it go to pursue what he wanted.

It’s because of this lack of concern, it’s because he didn’t put his all into volleyball, that he sets Hinata free.

Tenma represents the death of the idol, freedom from expectation, and independent passion. What was once a cool back and a harsh glare is now just a man who Hinata finds he never wanted to be.

Without the looming shadow, without that faceless, impossible back guiding him, Hinata can finally form his own path. There is no longer a ‘wrong’ route, the pressure disappears, slipping back into the ocean it drifted in from. Tenma smiles in the face of Hinata’s pressure and Hinata finds relief, and that he’s not disappointed at all.

One could say Tenma is a wave that crashes over Hinata, guiding him by not guiding him at all, and a breath of fresh air.

[ ](https://ibb.co/r6BjMcB)

In _Haikyū!!_ , there is no ‘correct’ philosophy. Each school banner is shown with pride, waving across courts in different versions of success. In _Haikyū!!,_ there is no infallible idol. Tenma drops volleyball, Ushijima and Oikawa lose to Karasuno, and the famous Romero loses versus MSBY. In _Haikyū!!_ , there is no one way to be successful. Not once are we made to look down upon anyone, each character appearing at the end of the series to show what it can mean to grow up, that these beloved characters can be just as interesting after high school, even if they don’t get some ‘elite’ job. Some of the most important and loveable characters in the entire series are school alumni who work at restaurants, convenience stores, and markets.

Even in the future, we can see that love of ‘different ways forward’ in new ways. Nishinoya Yū hunts marlins in Italy and Miya Osamu starts a food business despite their prestige, and Tsukishima Kei and Kyōtani Kentarō go pro despite their initial, complicated interest in volleyball. Perhaps more importantly, we watch Hoshiumi embrace the title of the Little Giant versus Hinata, who embraces his new play style and title as Ninja Shōyōu.

Nearly every one of these characters are touched in different ways and various degrees by Udai Tenma via Hinata in ways they’ll never even realize. But perhaps that’s part of the point. The connections people make can be from splashes or ripples. Hinata’s, and consequently our, preconceptions about Tenma are corrected by Tenma himself. We learn that he is not as ‘important’ as we originally thought, despite being so influential to the entire series. He made a single splash in the ocean, when several other characters—Takeda Ittetsu, Kageyama Tobio, and Ukai Keishin to Kozume Kenma, Tanaka Saeko, Oikawa Tōru, and Yachi Madoka, ultimately, end up just as important to Hinata’s progression as Tenma without the fanfare.

They all serve a role, a purpose, influence others and are influenced by others. Tenma learns this, appreciates he’s served a role in a generation of monsters.

[ ](https://ibb.co/B2ZNJ2C)

Tenma shows that connections can come from or to anywhere and that where a story ends and where a story begins completely depends on the individual. The things that precede Shōyōu are different journeys that we receive glimpses of in flashbacks, entire stories and lifetimes that we’ll never know. There’s Ukai Ikkei, who helps build Karasuno’s legacy and coaches Tenma and Hinata, and there’s Nekomata Yasufumi, who forms the other half of the Nekoma rivalry and helps Karasuno’s resurgence. On the other end, there are things that follow Shōyōu that no one predicted—like being known as a Brazilian ninja who inspires new generations.

Everything connects. People connect. It’s a core, if not _the_ core message of _Haikyū!!_ When Tenma first played volleyball, he didn’t know he’d inspire a generation, and he didn’t know that generation would then inspire him to write a manga.

If Furudate truly wants Tenma to be their stand-in, perhaps they understand that their manga has caused and will cause ripples in the world, and embraces it. As much as Furudate can try, they will never truly know the depth of their work’s shattering impact. There are stories of friendships and love and heartbreaks born from a mutual love of _Haikyū!!,_ inspirations of lifelong volleyball fans and even volleyball players, and creations of fan content that have saved peoples’ lives or pushed them to new heights.

We are the protagonists of the world, and the ripples we create will carry across the sea, touching things the initial point will never fathom, let alone know about.

**Author's Note:**

> Would love to know your meta opinions if you read through this :)
> 
> HQ!! 2nd Season Episode 4 - "Center Ace" is where you can find flashbacks of the Little Giant.


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